I Missed You So Bad When You Were Gone, Beth Greene
by eReedus
Summary: He'd been looking for her for months, not even knowing what was real or not anymore. Then one day Daryl finds Beth alive, one year after she 'died' in front of him at Grady Memorial Hospital. A Bethyl short story that gives one version of what might have happened in the scenes we were never shown. Rated strong M for language and explicit sex. Daryl/Beth fluff. Bethyl.


**A/N This is just a short little fiction, wherein Daryl finds Beth alive about a year after she was shot. The premise is that he was forced to leave her somewhere outside Grady by members of his group as they became overrun by walkers. They all thought she was dead, but Daryl has spent the last year looking for her, eaten up by the guilt she may have turned or may have even survived.**

 **There were many places in season 5b where people in the group seemed to have guilt over whatever really happened to Beth's body after it left the hospital. Hopefully we will get some flashbacks in season 6 to explain all this strange behaviour? Glenn and Rick's conversation in episode 9, Daryl really pissed at Glenn, Maggie freaking out over the blonde walker in the trunk, Daryl freaking out over the blonde walker tied to a tree and Rick freaking out when that female walker started to move inside that crashed car. Guilt over leaving her unburied and possibly alive/as a walker mayhaps?!**

 **This one shot was initially inspired by a quote I read from Norman a while back. He said that if Daryl ever gets any action on the show he wants him to "go at it like an animal rutting"…which if you look at Daryl I think we can all envision happening?! I don't think he's very experienced, or would be too co-ordinated about it... but bless him he'd try... and we all love a trier :-O**

 **As always, this is rated a strong M for smut and language. Please enjoy another slice of my Bethyl smut pie ;) And please show some love by reviewing…**

 **Love E xx**

I Missed You So Bad When You Were Gone, Beth Greene

It was her beautiful curly yellow hair that Daryl caught sight of first. It hadn't changed one bit in the year she'd been 'gone'.

He'd dreamt about her nearly every night since the events at Grady, usually nightmares where he watched helplessly over and over as her head exploded and she collapsed at his feet after Dawn's freak shot. But sometimes, just sometimes he had sweet dreams, where he'd lived happily with Beth at that funeral home. A parallel universe where he'd never answered that damn door so carelessly that night, and where his usually sensible head hadn't been distracted by his foolish heart for the first time in his life.

He would have been able to pick out Beth Greene's crowning glory in a crowd of a thousand similar blonde heads. Hair piled high in that lopsided ponytail, messy braid running through it as flyaway strands billowed around her face in the breeze. The hair he was gazing at now looked cleaner though, more bright and golden than the last time he'd seen it, more like the early days when they'd been back at the farm. Daryl tried not to think on the last time he'd seen her… lifeless, pale, covered in blood. Dead.

Or that's what they'd thought, what he'd thought to begin with too. But here she was, moving and breathing and looking even more alive than she ever had before, even throughout their time alone together when she was so full of hope and belief there were still good people left in the world. He could only stare as he dismounted his motorcycle. His heart thumping hard in his throat as if wanting to choke him, to punish him for ever giving up on her, for not trying harder to find her, and for leaving her for dead without absolute confirmation she was, just to save his own skin.

Only he hadn't… not really. They'd made him leave her. All of them… even Maggie. Rick and Glenn had dragged him away, screaming uncontrollably and thrashing around wildly, still clinging to her limp tiny body as the others fought their way through the mass of dead, hampering their escape from the parking lot of the hospital. They'd eventually led his grief stricken and broken form away to safety, but only after forcing him to leave his angel behind.

He'd wanted to take Beth's body to safety with them so he could tell her the things he should have told her the night she was taken. Even if she couldn't hear them, he needed to say them. He wanted to bury her, mourn her and mark her life someway. But his family… Beth's family…wouldn't let him take her with him, they said she was slowing them down. So instead he'd begged them to let him stay with her, because he knew he'd rather die too than leave her on her own with _them_. Glenn and Rick and Abraham wouldn't give in, they overpowered him and treated him like he wasn't in his right mind. Daryl knew he was though, he knew that it had been the only time in his long, awful fucked up life where he _had_ been in his right mind. If he'd ever doubted his love for her before, Daryl's epiphany came then and there, as he watched them prise Beth's limp lifeless body from his arms and lock her in the back seat of the broken car. The realisation that he'd fallen in love with this beautiful blonde angel hit him like a freight train. He was in stupid crazy love with Beth Greene, and he knew he would be for the rest of his life… whether she was dead or not was inconsequential.

First he'd let strangers take her, now his family were taking her… and he was doing nothing to stop them, just like the first time. He was useless, weak and pathetic. Beth would never know it was her: her that had changed him, her that he had fallen for, her that had given his soul wings, and her that he would've been content to spend the rest of his days alone with. They hadn't given him chance to tell her, chance to show her how he felt.

Deep down he knew that wasn't strictly true either. He _had_ been given opportunity to confess his feelings. He just hadn't been man enough to do so… and then it had been too late. She was gone. It took that dark empty night when he'd run and run until he wanted to vomit and his legs wanted to buckle, his ribs aching from the pounding nauseous feeling in his chest, for him to finally understand he was all alone again… and it was his own fault.

Then against all odds, he'd found her… at the hospital. He'd actually seen her living and breathing. She'd been so close to him he could have touched her, pulled her to safety, but instead, for a second time, he'd lacked the courage to do anything more than stare at her. Useless, weak, pathetic once more as she stood up for Noah, as she did what none of them had the balls to do. Then she was gone. Not missing this time…shot dead in front of them.

Now here he was in the middle of nowhere, the middle of the road in some run down filthy town, staring at her again. But was he? He'd 'seen' her so many times this past year, he wasn't sure he was still in his right mind. Grief did that didn't it? Caused hallucinations, messed with your mind and senses until you were confused and unsure anything was true anymore. That's what it had done to Rick, and Daryl was sure he was driving that same crazy train right now.

He'd 'seen' her in trunks, locked in cars, as a dead walker by the roadside, tied to a tree… any flash of blonde and his mind flooded once again with the guilt that laid heavy in his heart, closing him off from ever feeling much more than contempt for anyone of his family again. It was the guilt of letting her be taken, of not saving her, not standing up to Rick and Glenn… but mostly the guilt of leaving her to _them_.

He knew this time… this third chance to tell her how he felt, to keep her safe and bring her back to their family… well, he wasn't fucking it up. Not again. He wasn't, he couldn't lose her. He'd been a dead man walking since the moment her boneless body had fallen at his feet in that corridor. If she really was here in front of him, if this really was her and she really was his Beth, then he was going to hold onto her and never let her go. Ever. Fuck the dead, fuck the living, fuck his family. They'd given up on her, they'd broken his heart by forcing him to give up on her too. Beth was worth more than any of them, she was worth dying for… and a part of him had died. The part of him she'd slowly awoken and nurtured with her love and optimism. The same part that had withered away as he'd let them drag her lifeless body from his arms… and he knew he would never get that part back. That part belonged with Beth and had died when she died. He didn't want to get it back either, he didn't deserve her love and optimism, because that pain, that dark dead part of him would remind him of his betrayal. It would remind him of the weak coward he was. Remind him that this beautiful shining girl had scorched his soul and marked him forever with her goodness, and all he'd done in return was let her down.

As confused as Daryl was as he stood watching her kneeling in the road, the only thing he knew for sure, was that nobody and nothing was ever standing in his way of being with Beth Greene again. Especially not his own cowardice.

"Beth?" Daryl's voice was hardly audible. He wasn't even sure he was awake and that this vision wasn't another of his tormented dreams. He'd seen her like this before, knelt on the ground facing away from him, and as she turned around she would be nothing more than another half decayed tortured soul, feasting on human flesh. Another of the walking dead. But this time something was different. Something deep inside him told him it _was_ his girl and that she wasn't a walker either.

She didn't turn around, not immediately. The blonde did stop moving though, and somehow Daryl knew she'd heard and understood him, knew that she knew who he was from that one word alone. Daryl was sure it was his Beth and he was sure she was a living breathing human. He didn't know or care how that was even possible, but he just knew he'd finally found her and he thought his heart might explode from the joy.

"Beth? Is it you? Are you real? Say somethin'." Daryl's voice cracked and stuttered as the blonde turned around, so slowly Daryl's breath stopped and he thought it might never start again. The noises in his head and his pulse pounding loudly in his ears was distracting and the blood coursing through his veins at breakneck speed was making him dizzy.

"Daryl?" Beth's eyes were huge as she looked up at him from her place on the ground, they were filled with a fire that burned so fiercely Daryl hardly recognised her as the Beth he'd lost. Her face was hardened; littered with scars, huge raised angry looking scars. One across her forehead and one across her opposite cheek. She looked older, worn, and maybe…broken somehow? But she'd survived and he'd never seen her look more determined or strong. More independent… and feral. As his eyes scanned over every inch of her face and body, he noticed the scar from the bullet that had taken her from him. Pink, round and raised, half hidden in the hairline at her temple.

"Beth? Yer dead… how? I saw…I don't know…" Daryl looked to the ground in shame and confusion. He rubbed his face with both hands, hoping it would bring some clarity to the situation. It didn't. When he looked up, she was now stood in front of him, staring right back at him with the same look of shock and fear and confusion that must've been present on his own face.

"You don't know what? How I survived? Why I ain't dead? Maybe you shouldn't have left…" what was about to be a tirade of oppressed anger and hurt from Beth, was interrupted by Daryl unexpectedly grabbing her arms and crashing his lips into hers, muffling the rest of the words he didn't want to hear. Didn't need to hear. He already knew he'd let her down.

Daryl couldn't remember moving towards her, but he obviously had because right now his hands were grasping her face and his tongue was pushing its way past her lips and into her mouth every time Beth moved to speak or breathe. The blonde was pushing her palms into his chest with force, pushing him away, as the archer pulled her closer with even more force.

Daryl didn't know if he was ignoring her protestations on purpose, hoping they would stop, or whether he could only hear the same sounds of pleasure fall from Beth's lips as were falling from his own. Daryl was confused about everything and not even sure she wasn't a mirage or some shitty hallucination his brain felt like torturing him with. She felt real though, she felt as small and soft as she had when he'd held her after she'd been shot, she felt clammy and hot, just like he did, from the sweltering humidity hanging thickly in the GA air. He could feel her heart banging against his ribs, and her breath bursting through her nostrils as he kissed her. She felt so very real he was sure she had to be there.

Confused as he was, there was one thing Daryl wasn't confused about. That was the burning and desperate desire currently ripping through his core and threatening to engulf him if he didn't quench the hunger he'd had for Beth Greene for longer than he'd ever admit to. The looks of longing he'd flashed her back at the farm, the hope he'd held that she'd one day speak to him, look at him with the same longing. The effort he'd put into staying away from her at the prison for fear he'd touch what wasn't his to touch, then the anger he'd shown her after they were alone… the anger that was borne from love not hate like she'd thought. The only thing he hated was that she'd left him thinking he despised being with her, that he thought she was useless and a burden. He'd never once thought those things about her…not even close.

After a while, Daryl's hands shifted from the blonde's face and curled instead around her waist, dragging her now more maleable body into his and feeling a thrill of arousal course through him as her softness and curves melted into his hard lines as if they'd connected that way a thousand times before. As if it was as natural as breathing. To him it was. He'd never been with anyone in this way before, he'd never wanted to, but with Beth it was different. He wanted to please her, he wanted to show her how much he loved her, and protect her from everything awful left in the world. More than that he needed the physical connection, the sensation of skin on skin to know for sure she wasn't just a figment of his fucked up mind.

So Daryl carried on kissing her, his mouth sliding against hers at a gentler and slower pace. One where his mind and body had calmed enough to realise Beth was reciprocating his affections. She wasn't objecting anymore and her tongue was moving with his, not against it. Without thought Daryl's hands drifted lower still, cupping her ass cheeks and grinding her pelvis down over his hardened cock as he groaned out almost shamefully at the thrilling sensation. Only he wasn't ashamed, not about wanting her. He never would be again. Beth had come back from the dead and he wanted what was left of the world to know that Beth Greene owned him… body and soul. With her he was a man even she could be proud of, without her he was nothing but a worthless redneck asshole…a nothing, a nobody… back to doing only what his even bigger asshole of a brother said they were doing.

Beth's response was to thrust her hands through Daryl's hair and tug backwards so hard it broke their kiss, tearing their lips apart. "I hate you, Daryl Dixon." Beth gasped, eyes flashing black and with enough passion and desire that he knew she meant the exact opposite. Beth moaned out as she roughly kissed along his jaw, before pulling back to look at him again. "You left, Daryl. Why'd you leave me? I thought you..." Beth stroked her hands through his hair as she kissed frantically at his exposed throat. "You left me with _them_ as if I were dead. I wasn't dead. I woke up. I was alone. I'm not dead… do I look dead to you, do I feel dead?!" Beth panted as Daryl pulled away and buried his face in the curve of her neck, sucking and kissing until he knew she'd be bruised. He needed to explain.

"I wanted to take ya with us, but they made me leave without ya...Beth I searched, I swear I fucking searched for ya, I never stopped lookin', then I found ya, an' I thought you'd come back to me. That we'd be okay. Then ya died...an' ya left me. Then I searched again… I've always been searchin'. Please, Beth. Don't hate me. I love ya. I've always loved ya. I know I let ya down…I'm sorry. You'll never know how sorry." Daryl held her close, hiding the silent tears that spilled from his eyes once more.

He'd cried himself to sleep more times than he could count. Crying for the loss of every good thing now gone from this world because Beth Greene was no longer in it. Crying for the loss of what might've been between them, the life they could've had. But most of all crying because the woman that had turned him from boy to man was now gone, and the fear he had inside himself of returning to who he had been and not staying who he was now, was overwhelming, smothering. The panic at knowing she wasn't there to guide him, that she'd never be there again had terrified him. It was like waking from the same nightmare over and over...the ending never changing. Beth was dead. He was on his own. No matter what happened, what changed, he couldn't save her. Beth was always dead and he was always the one left on his own.

As he held her, his hands moved upwards from her ass, following the contours of her hips and waist, sliding under her shirt. They found the smooth naked skin of her back, warm and soft as he aligned their bodies, his fingertips bruising as they clung desperately to her flesh and his mouth attached itself to hers once more.

Beth mumbled something against his lips but Daryl wouldn't stop, not for one second. Whatever she wanted to say to him could wait, because he knew…somehow he knew even though she was mad at him she wasn't asking him to stop. So everything else could wait. Everything else could go to hell.

Daryl snaked his hand around her front, kneading her bare breast as his tongue licked a long wet line over her jaw to her ear. Her mouth now unoccupied, Daryl expected Beth to speak. She didn't. Instead she moaned out, dug her nails into his scalp and tugged him impossibly close, her breath hitching against Daryl's ear as he began to play her body. One hand palming her small firm breast, one threading itself into her hair as he held her tight and trailed his tongue over the glistening pulsing flesh of her throat. His hot and heavy cock pushed into the heat between her legs as she ground herself over its length, panting and moaning.

Daryl walked forward a few steps, lifting Beth off the ground and pushing her against the hood of the nearest car. He broke their kiss, his lips raw and breath heavy, and his hooded eyes locked with hers. He wanted permission to go on. He knew he already had it, she wouldn't have let him kiss her otherwise, but for some reason he needed to see it in her face. And he did... and so much more too.

Beth's eyes were snapping with an electricity, the desire inside himself being reflected back at him with even more passion. Her lips hung open, pink and swollen as the noise of her rapid breathing seemed to drown out even his own panting and his own heart pounding in his chest. Daryl's eyes never left hers, not as he laid her out on the hood, not as he stripped her of her pants and panties, nor as he felt her kick off her boots and yank at his belt. Not as she pulled him out of his pants and stroked her palm over the silky skin of his engorged and leaking cock. Not even as he held her down, arms above her head, and trailed the tip of his cock slowly through her soaking folds, teasing her to the point of insanity.

It was Beth that broke their gaze, the moment Daryl pushed himself inside her tight wet centre, filling her to the point of breaking her, she let out a moan of pure unadulterated pleasure, closing her eyes and arching her back away from the hard metal hood underneath her and into the body of the man above her.

"Oh God, please." Beth begged through quiet slow breaths, her eyes now open and burning through his once more. She wrapped one arm around the archer's neck, pulling him flush against her body as the fingers of her other hand traced loving lines over his cheek as her eyes told him she wanted him, needed him. Her legs crossed tightly around Daryl's waist as she rocked her hips up into his, needing him to move.

Daryl kissed her, softly and slowly as he lost himself in the beautiful sounds escaping Beth's mouth. He dug his teeth into her lower lip, sucking and dragging it until her nails has almost pierced a hole in his shoulder. He pulled back, ripping open Beth's shirt with one fast movement, his mouth latching onto her pink erect nipple as his fingers rolled the other until he could feel Beth's insides constricting around him in arousal. He started to slide in and out of her, slowly at first, concentrating on the exquisite sensation of the contours of her pussy as he stroked his cock inside her walls. She gripped onto him so hard he was struggling to stay focused, but when she moaned out to go 'faster', 'harder', any concentration he had left, disappeared in an instant.

He gave her what she wanted. He fucked her with wild abandon, lifting her ass for deeper penetration, thrusting into her like an animal on heat. The more she moaned, the more she begged the harder he went, rutting into her roughly with long deep strokes, yet with all the care he could find. The beautiful slurping and slopping sound that his rock hard cock made as it rammed into her tight wet cunt, coupled with her panting and moaning, was as much a turn on as actually being inside her.

Daryl bent forward and kissed her. All around her exposed heaving chest, her throat and face… anywhere he could reach. He claimed her mouth and his kiss turned hard and sloppy and full of uncontrollable tongue. He groaned as he pulled back to rest his forehead on Beth's shoulder. He wanted to watch as their bodies connected, watch as his swollen cock disappeared inside her warm welcoming body, over and over, and watch as he rubbed his fingers rhythmically around her clit until he finally took her to climax. He watched as her thick warm liquid gushed over his already soaked cock, and her already tight walls squeezed him again and again until his body was throbbing and he was on the edge of his own release.

Beth mumbled into his long sweaty hair, holding him tight and meeting him thrust for thrust as he carried on pounding into her. He could feel his cock stiffen as he reached the point of no return. He watched as he pulled his pulsing member out of her body and spilled himself, spurt after spurt of warm cum, across Beth's sweaty and flushed abdomen and breasts. Jesus, he'd never in his life come that hard and with that much force before, he thought he might black out as his vision blurred for a second and his heart hit his ribs. Beth tightened her grip on him, lovingly wrapping him in her arms and legs, mumbling softly against his neck as his spent body collapsed onto her. His breathing was hard and erratic as his head spun with the thousand and one things he needed to say and do now he knew she was really here and that she wanted him too.

All he wanted right now though was to lie here with the woman he loved and hold onto her. So he did. In the middle of a dusty deserted street, on top of a rusty broken down car hood. They lay together in the heat of the afternoon, in an unmoving silence for a while, broken only by a sudden shaking and sobbing from Beth. It came from nowhere and Daryl panicked as his senses returned and he realised what he'd just done.

"Beth? Oh God, Beth. I'm so sorry, did I hurt ya? Don't cry, please. S'gonna be okay, I promise." Daryl propped himself up to look at her. Beth's hands were covering her eyes and her whole body was shaking, her cheeks wet with tears.

"Beth, look at me, c'mon. What's wrong?" Daryl placed his hands gently over Beth's and pulled her hands away from her face, uncovering her eyes and making her look at him. "I'm sorry. Tell me what I did wrong." Daryl begged as the high he was riding, crashed down around him.

"I can't… go…go back with you, Daryl…I won't. Not if you're still with the others." Beth stuttered as she struggled to speak through her shallow sobs.

"Why? I don't…I ain't leavin' ya Beth. I ain't losin' ya again. We found a new place. They're good people… ya were right, there are still good people. Beth, if it weren't safe I'd never make ya go. Maggie, Asskicker, they're all there." Daryl offered as he stroked his thumb softly over the raised scar on his girl's cheek.

"They don't care about me. None of them. They left me for dead, all of them, except you." Beth's words sounded harsh and bitter, but Daryl could understand it. They had left her, they had all thought she was dead… from the second she'd left the burning prison, Beth had been dead to them.

Beth sucked in a breath and forced a smile before she carried on, "I remember bits… after Dawn. I remember being held, held so tight I wanted to tell whoever it was to stop because it was hurtin'… Voices, there were voices… just noise really. And then I was being torn in half. Bein' pulled, and there was screamin' and shoutin' and then just silence. I thought I was dead. I wanted to be… all I could think was that I was gonna turn into one of them and no one would be there to help me. Then…I don't know… maybe days later I woke up in Grady again. Dr Edwards found me and he saved me. He said he saw what happened outside in the parking lot. He isn't the bad person you all think he is. He told me how they dragged you away, how you wouldn't leave me… but that you did in the end." Beth retold her story as she twisted strands of Daryl's hair nervously around her fingers, gazing into the saddest eyes she'd ever seen. Eyes filled with tears and guilt and hatred. Hatred for himself, not for her.

"It's okay Daryl. I don't blame you… for anythin'. Yes I was mad when I saw you, but I'm so happy we found each other I could burst. I never thought I'd see you again. Ever. Dr Edwards said you came back the next day lookin' for me in that car? He thought it best if he let you leave thinking I was dead, for you to start again with the group. He was right. Daryl, Rick lost his mind. It would have been war if you'd all stayed, and I needed to be at the hospital. After you shot Dawn things got better at Grady. They looked after me all this time. It took months before I could walk again or before I got my memory back fully." Beth carried on explaining as best she could, Daryl unable, and not really even wanting to stop his tears from falling.

"Beth, I'm sorry I left. I shouldn't have let them stop me. Ya ain't got no idea how broken I was after losin' ya after just' findin' ya. I was outta my mind… have been this past year. Weren't even sure ya were real…even now." Daryl paused as he thought of how he'd just found her. "Why are ya out here on yer own? What were ya doin in the road?"

Beth's face softened and she giggled slightly as she thought about what Daryl would probably say to what she was going to tell him next. Daryl watched as her tiny nose wrinkled and a beautiful happy smile crossed her lips, "What?" he asked as a smile claimed his own mouth. He couldn't help it, Beth's verve for life was infectious. It always had been, and she didn't seem to have lost it in the year he'd been apart from her.

"The past month I've been scoutin' for vehicles and supplies. I've been coming way out from Atlanta too. Aannnd…I'm not on my own neither. See that motorcycle over there?" Beth turned her head and nodded to the side. Daryl's eyes followed her line of sight, eventually stopping at a huge black beast of a motorcycle parked up in the shadows at the end of the building behind them.

Daryl looked at the bike, looked back at Beth then to the bike again with a shit eating grin on his face. "'Kay, well I _know_ that bike's too damn big fer ya to handle, so what's the deal, Greene?" Daryl chuckled as he looked back down at Beth's beautiful smiling flushed face.

"I don't handle it… Tom does!" Beth's eyes went huge and she reached up and pressed a kiss under Daryl's ear before whispering "And right now he's probably sitting in that window watchin' us, afraid to come out!" Beth giggled and laid out flat on the hood once more.

Daryl immediately scanned the area for anyone or anything, scrambling to cover Beth's body and dress her. "Daryl, it's okay. He's a forty year old gay man who isn't the least bit interested in seeing my naked body… yours on the other hand? Pretty sure I'd start dressing if I were you!" Beth laughed and Daryl turned fifty shades of red as he pulled up his pants and put himself away. "Funny Greene, real funny. Ya best not be messin' with me!" Daryl panted as he rearranged himself and pulled Beth to stand beside him.

"Are you jealous Daryl Dixon? Oh my goodness, you are." Beth teased as she grabbed Daryl's hand and he mumbled some sort of denial, staring at the ground. Beth started to walk him back to his motorcycle and that was the first time Daryl noticed Beth's limp. It wasn't hugely noticeable, it wasn't like she was hopping or dragging her leg behind her… but he saw it nonetheless. Her right leg, stiffer and slower than it should have been. All thoughts of being watched and petty jealousy disappeared as he realised he was more than likely going to have to make one of the hardest decisions of his life any moment now.

"Ya were right, Beth." Daryl started as he held on to his girl's hand with such force, he had to concentrate on not breaking it.

"Well I usually am." Beth teased before realising Daryl was being deadly serious and all of a sudden feeling very nervous about what she'd been right about. "So… what was I right about?" she asked with trepidation.

"I missed ya so bad when ya were gone, Beth Greene. Ya ain't got no idea… an' I never stopped lookin' for ya. I never woulda stopped. Ya don't do ya? Stop lookin' for someone… someone yer in love with." Daryl stopped, twirled Beth round and curled his arms around her waist. He lowered his forehead onto hers and kissed the end of her nose.

"I'll leave 'em. I won't go back, not if ya don't want me to. I'll go wherever ya wanna go. I figured out a long time ago, I ain't got no home 'cept ya. Yer my home… so wherever ya go, I'm gonna go too." Daryl didn't give Beth chance to respond. Truthfully he was too scared she would say something he wouldn't like. Like she didn't love him, didn't want to be with him… anywhere. Period. So he kissed her, so gently he felt her wobble, felt her throaty moans vibrating through his centre.

Beth pulled her head away and slid her hands either side of his face, "You got room on that bike of yours for a little one?" The blonde smiled at him and bit down on her lower lip, awaiting an answer.

"Baby, we can go anywhere ya want. Start over, jus' us. Go back to how we were before all this happened, 'fore I let 'em take ya." Daryl closed his eyes and pressed his lips into the scar in her temple that had started all this long nightmare. Beth sighed contentedly, "I love you Daryl Dixon. I promise I'm never leavin' you again. I missed you so bad."

Daryl helped Beth on to the back of his bike, but before they had chance to pick a direction and ride off, a timid voice interrupted them. "Uhhh, hey Beth? Are ya goin' somewhere?"

Beth turned around, wide eyed, "Oh, Tom. I almost forgot about you! Yeah, Daryl and I are leavin'. Will you tell the others I'm fine and… and tell Dr Edwards thank you and he made the right call. He'll know what I mean. And c'mere. Gimme a hug. Promise you'll take care of yourself." Beth threw her arms around Tom's huge body and kissed his cheek, trying to hide her tears as the man nodded and hugged her back.

After everything that had happened, she would miss the people at Grady. But they weren't Daryl, they weren't her home. She needed this fresh start. She needed to be with Daryl, without anyone from her past. She was different now, and only Daryl understood it. The road she was on now was one she needed to share with Daryl and Daryl alone. They'd started it together and they needed to end it together.

Daryl pulled back the throttle and revved the engine, in his own way calling time on Beth's farewell. Selfishly he wanted her all to himself. As much as he'd miss his family, he knew Beth would more than compensate for the loss. Honestly this whole last year he'd been distanced from them all anyway. He blamed them for losing Beth and he knew he'd never get past that, even now he had her back. Surprisingly he thought he would miss Aaron the most. Aaron had been his surrogate 'Beth' for a while. He'd believed in him, seen his true colours and accepted him for who he was. Of all the people he would never see again, Aaron would be the hardest loss to bear.

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They'd been riding north for hours when Beth suddenly nudged Daryl enough to get his attention and motion for him to stop. He pulled over and shut down the bike.

"There's a moonshine shack about a mile through there." Beth pointed through the thick foliage, "You wanna stop for the night? It's gonna be dark soon. Hey, promise I won't make you burn this one down!" Beth giggled as she thought back to that night, the night they'd finally connected and he'd opened up to her.

"'kay." Daryl eyed the blonde with suspicion as she swung her good leg over the back of the bike and stood next to him, "Ya know ya ain't gotta get me lit with moonshine fer me to talk no more, right?" Daryl teased as he gripped her hips and pulled her into him, kissing her cheek sweetly.

"I know… but maybe I don't wanna have sex outside again! Ever thought about usin' a bed Mr Dixon?" Daryl growled and buried his face against her neck.

"Thought about nothin' else, Miss Greene. Now get on, apparently I got somewhere I need to be." Beth pulled out of Daryl's embrace and took her place behind her man, wrapping her arms around his waist and snuggling her smiling face into the back of his neck.

"I love you." Those three words were the only words he ever needed to hear fall from her lips. Daryl could feel himself healing. Her mere presence was enough to mend his broken bits and strengthen his good bits. Knowing she loved him... well he was pretty sure he could handle anything else this shitty life could throw at him.

"I love ya too." He announced loudly with a grin on his face. Because he did. More than life itself. And he didn't care who heard.

 **A/N Well, I'd like to see this happen! I doubt Beth will ever come back though. Hopefully we'll get to see what really happened, but in all likelihood she did die or she turned. I'm still sailing in that ship called 'Bethyl'...I always will be, but I'm just trying to protect my little heart from breaking when Emily most likely doesn't return this season :(**

 **I hope you enjoyed my little bit of fantasy Bethyl? Don't forget to review if you feel so inclined. Until next time, love E xx**


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